“If you leave, you take the Trinity with you”

Opening of the Exhibition- Laboratory
“If you leave, you take the Trinity with you” The Council of Nicaea and the origin of Knowledge as Relation
In occasion of the celebration of 1700 years since the First Council of Nicaea.
The exhibition aims to help us decisively take a new path, as expressed in a quote attributed to Saint Gregory of Nazianzus when he was stopped at the gates of the city “If you leave, you take the Trinity with you.” Those who were leaving should carry the Trinity (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) in their hearts and lives. The Trinity is not just a theological concept but a present reality to be experienced and incarnated into the world.
In Nicaea I, the Trinity is understood in its fascinating tension between knowledge and relationship, originated by a happening when Saint Spyridon of Tremithus, Bishop of Cyprus, performed a miracle involving a brick to demonstrate the Holy Trinity. It revealed itself to the listeners in its three elements of water, earth, and fire while remaining one. It is an eye-opener not only for the originality with which the Trinity can become creatively and concrete vividly in the world, but also for the necessity of seeing God in relationships of all kinds.

The exhibition is a kind of laboratory that, in the context of Nicaea I, not only shows how word, image, and matter are interwoven, but also how we can recognize one in the other without separating or mixing them. The goal is to practice sincerity of understanding, which, according to Guardini, means: “Knowledge is always somehow an encounter in love.”

1st part: Relationship in the word
2nd part: Relationship with the image, with the image embodied
3rd part: Relationship with the other, with this source of renewal
The exhibition will be open for visits until Thursday 16th October 2025.

Organisers and curators:
Prof. Dr. Yvonne DOHNA SCHLOBITTEN – Professor at the Faculty of History and Cultural Heritage of the Church – Pontifical Gregorian University and Prof. Dr. Lucian LECHINTAN sj – Pontifical Oriental Institute.

You may also like the following events from Chapel for Europe:

• Next month, 2nd October, 07:00 pm, Presentation of the Christian Life Community (CLC) in Ixelles
• Next month, 9th October, 07:00 pm, EMBRACING SERENITY: A SPIRITUAL JOURNEY TO OVERCOME FEAR AND UNCERTAINTY in Ixelles

Also check out other Exhibitions in Ixelles.